Photo Albums

Photos of Hafez Assad and his son Bashar Assad are festooned all over Syria and Lebanon. This gallery documents how a cult-of-personality for the Assads has been established by the Syrian regime in both countries. The photos come from a variety of sources.

September 20, 2005

Yesterday, we cited a Yemenite newspaper's expose that scholarship slots for study in the US, UK, and Canada were being doled out to children of people tied to President Saleh's regime. "These students, who have a personal stake in the regime," we mused, "are
going to be class A apologists for Yemen's status quo on American
campuses."

But here's one interesting example of a Bahraini young woman studying in the US who recounts an incident on a public bus where she had to confront civil rights abuses back home:

I noticed a black man comming towards me. He sat next to me and I could tell he wanted to talk. I waited until...

Man: Hello, are you form Egypt?Me: No I am from Bahrain. (with pride)Man: Bahrain?? How are Asian and Indian maids treated there?Me: emmm... (looking down and ashmed) well, honestly... bad.Man: What do you mean by bad?Me: (I thought of Anita Verma
whom I had met personally) I mean bad as in neo-slavery. They have no
rights and no laws to protect those rights. If the family is good then
they are lucky. Otherwise, which is more common, they overwork for very
low wages, and sometimes dont get paid at all. Also they get raped and
have noway to protect themselves. On top of all that the family keeps
their passports so they cannot go back to their countries without the
families consent. Many commit suicide, I could go on and on.Man: (giving me a bad look) Why do you treat them like that?Me:
Well, racism. I guess many people are born and raised treating Indians
and other nationalities as an inferior race. They grow up believing it.

I
love my country Bahrain and I love my people as well. But when it comes
to this issue, I am ashamed. I wish I could have told that man that
racism comes only from the upper class and not the average poor
Bahraini. But I know that would be a lie.

Some PLUS students
here criticize me for the negative things I say about my country when
it comes to this issue and the the government. They say we are here in
the States to give the best picture possible of our countries. However,
I know that as a muslim it is my job to speak up when I see something
wrong. We cannot cry for our democracy and turn around and abuse other
people.

I would like to mention that not all Bahrainis are
racist ofcourse. Many Bharainis work for the rights of Migrant workers.
But in Bahraini society it has become something very normal to treat
others with disrespect because of their origin.

September 19, 2005

Last month, Armies of Liberation was all over the story of Yemenite journalist Jamal Amer, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper al-Wassat, who was abducted by military thugs and beaten outside the capital city Sanaa for an expose on state corruption. Amer's brush with death for trying to maintain an independent media outlet is just one example of Yemen's recent crackdown on journalists:

...Then the local AP guy as well as Sami Ghalib, the editor of al-Nidaa
newspaper, had their offices raided and files and computers stolen.
Another journalist, Mohammed Saleh Hadiri, is reporting threats. Khaled
Salman is facing charges for writing about corruption. The editor of
socialists paper al-Thoury is going to court for the 13th time. And now
the Yemeni Air Force has kidnapped Khaled Hamadi, Sanaa reporter for Alquds Al Arabia...

The numerous examples are each outrageous in their own right. But buried in the story of journalist intimidation is this nugget about how overseas scholarships for Yemenite students get handed out:

[Amer's] Alwasat weekly newspaper has published an article reporting on who
is sent for college studies in the U.S., England, and Canada. The
article is quite informative in that it stated that the amount of
students (56) sent to the three nations on government scholarships are
all sons of ministers, prominent sheiks, Ambassadors, relatives of [President] Ali
Saleh, etc… Most were not worthy of the scholarships…They got the
scholarships by way of orders from the Prime Minister himself, by the
President, or by other high officials. The article goes on to emphasise
that most of the students sent to the three countries on government
shcholarships were also receiving monthly allotments from other
sources, for example, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of
Defense, the Interior Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the
Yemeni Oil Company.”

Sure, nepotism exists everywhere. But the fact that all Yemenite students in the US, the UK, and Canada have direct government connections was clearly very sensitive to Saleh's regime. After all, they sent thugs to beat up Jamal Amer just for printing the story.

It also makes you realize that many American, British, and Canadian universities are ready to play along with the nepotism. And that these students - who have a personal stake in the regime - are going to be class A apologists for Yemen's status quo on American campuses.

September 17, 2005

September 16, 2005

Yesterday, we noted that the body count from the genocide in Darfur now exceeds 370,000 (not to mention the estimated 1.5 million southern Sudanese slaughtered in the last two decades). We paused to consider the magnitude of that number and the individual human experience behind such a cold statistic.

But today, as promised, we look at what can be done - by us, by you. A lot, actually, but here are three quick things:

1) Support Divestment campaigns: Even though the US has sanctions preventing American companies from
doing business in Sudan, dozens of international corporations active in
Sudan are traded on US stock markets. Your university (or alma mater) and you state (if you live in the US) is likely invested in these companies. There are several dozen divestment drives going on in individual states and campuses. Visit the list here and sign the petitions. It takes about 2 minutes of your time.

2) Join the October 6 Darfur Fast: Students are organizing an international day of fasting to mark the genocide in Darfur. Learn more about the fast and how you can participate here. Join Bill Cosby and other lesser-known celebs.3) Organize a Candlelight Vigil: Candlelight vigils are an important way to educate the public, let political leaders know you care, and provide an opportunity to bring together people of conscience. It may not sound like much, but a vigil in a prominent public location can both be a moving event and make a real impact. There's one next week in Boston. Here's a guide to organizing your own.

Who will hold the first vigil in Cairo? In Dubai? In Tehran? Who will be fasting in Aleppo? Who in Rabat will sign on to the divestment petition? Not to mention Los Angeles, Chicago, and Montreal. If there's a Sudan genocide event in your neighborhood, send in a heads-up.

September 15, 2005

...Conflict-related
deaths since the outbreak of major hostilities [in Western Sudan] in February 2003---from
all causes---now exceed 370,000. This total represents an increase of more than 10,000 [since June 30, 2005]... These “excess deaths” (in the euphemizing
phrase of epidemiologists) continue to occur chiefly because of
previous and continuing genocidal efforts by Khartoum’s National
Islamic Front (NIF)...
Genocide by attrition has grimly settled in for the foreseeable future...

This is an extremely well-orchestrated,
relentless war of attrition against the efforts of humanitarian
organizations to respond to genocidal destruction. The consequences of
these obstructionist policies can be measured in tens of thousands of
human lives lost and untold suffering.

Nor can we forget the violent intimidation the NIF has also
orchestrated against aid workers (particularly Sudanese nationals), or
the arrest earlier this summer of the two senior officials of the
distinguished Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF)-Holland, this because of MSF’s courage in publishing a scathing
indictment of rape as a weapon of war in Khartoum’s assault on the
people of Darfur. All this continues, modulated and adapted only to
escape the most direct international censure.

Reeves then reminds us of the human suffering behind the cold statistics - via the testimony of Fatima Ibrahim:

“On the morning of July 12, [2004] hell descended on the village of
Donki Dereisa. Shortly before sunrise, Fatima Ibrahim, 28, awoke to the
deafening sound of exploding ordnance falling from the sky. As she
emerged from her mud hut with her 10-year-old daughter, she saw fires
blazing all around and scores of heavily armed men on horseback
attacking from every direction. With bullets whistling past, Ibrahim
and her daughter ran for their lives, ducking into a nearby ravine,
where they hid without food or water for the next two days.”

“From the ditch, Ibrahim witnessed a horrific avalanche of violence
that will haunt her for life. With Sudanese foot soldiers at their
side, the mounted attackers shot the panicked and unarmed villagers in
cold blood. Approximately 150 people, including 10 women, were killed.
But the worst was to come.”

“Ibrahim told Refugees International about a week after the attack that
among those captured during the assault were four of her brothers and
six young children, including three of her cousins. As Ibrahim watched
in horror, several of the attackers began grabbing the screaming
children and throwing them one by one into a raging fire. One of the
male villagers ran from his hiding place to plead for their lives. It
was a fatal error. The raiders subdued the man and later beheaded him
and dismembered his body. All six of the children were burned.
Ibrahim's four brothers have not been heard from since.” (Washington
Post, July 31, 2004)

This is the hatred that has been loosed in Darfur; this is the violence
that terrifies the more than two and a half million people who have
been uprooted from their homes in Darfur, and who are far too fearful
to return. These are the people who, having endured the worst of
genocidal violence, now confront the ongoing threat of death amidst a
grim genocide by attrition... These are the
victims we have chosen to leave powerless before the forces of evil and
destruction, which will not cease to act without international
intervention.

This is the true meaning of “never again.”

Tomorrow's blogpost:"What You Can Do to Help Stop the National Islamic Front's Genocide Campaign"

September 14, 2005

"The wind beneath our wings" - the kind of lyrics normally reserved for sappy Bette Midler's ballads have now been usurped to hail a dictator who ruled the United Arab Emirates for 33 years. It's some hack government-controlled media outlet producing yet another fawning hagiography, right?

Actually no. It's an Austrian pop duo called Papermoon and their hit single "Zayed" - which draws its title from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, the man who turned the desert boonies into a Miami Beach on the Saudi border. The man who, according to the Guinness Book of Records, married one of his many wives with the most expensive wedding in the world (thanks to his emirates' holding 10% of the world's known oil supplies). The man whose Zayed Centre think-tank got in trouble for hosting Holocaust deniers and then had to withdraw a multi-million dollar gift to Harvard.

We're tempted to joke about Austrians hailing Holocaust deniers, but the song's message instead reinforces the p.r. line extolling Zayed as a man of peace who built the modern UAE:

For all the visions you believed inFor the goals you have achievedAnd for the peaceful ways you choseThe country flourished like a roseFor all the good things you did startWe want to thank you from our heartsYour name will echo in our headsA name we never will forgetZayed

So why did a European band - which should be all about the counter-culture - instead become part of the cult-of-personality culture? According to Papermoon's own website, the answer seems to be... money: "Papermoon recorded it espacially [sic] for the Higher College of Technologies, Abu Dhabi." Ah! And that might also explain their even newer single: "their tribute song to the 'Mother of the Nation', her highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak."

September 13, 2005

And Far Away... reports on last month's Funk-On Tour Festival in Amman, Jordan:

The first annual Funk On-Tour Festival is taking
place this summer, a localized "Battle of the Bands" sort of event
aiming to highlight local heavy metal bands by the virtue of
competition. I really, really love the idea of Jordanian unprocessed
and unmarketed music aimed at the youth, for this is music at its
purest form.

Tonight, I tuned into one of these competitions to
get a better jest of things. I'm not much of a metal-head, although
admittedly, there are some metal numbers that rank among my favorites.
The bands though were a little too metalish for my taste, and as this
was my first metal experience in Amman, I found my self completely shocked at the local goth/heavy metal scene that I was completely unaware of.

September 12, 2005

Wallace Stevens's famous poem provided thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird. With Libya's Muamar Qaddafhi - who on September 1 celebrated 36 glorious years in power - we have 73 ways. Or rather, at least 73 spellings. That's more than 2 spellings for every year the Colonel has rule over Libya.

For the complete list of Qaddafi names (compiled by the US Library of Congress, no less), see the wikipedia. Here are a few:

The basic problem here is that (1) there is no generally accepted authority for romanizing
Arabic names, and (2) the Mummer's name contains several sounds that have no exact
equivalent in English. In standard Arabic, the initial consonant qaf is pronounced like a
throaty k, midway between the English k and the German ch, as in Bach. The second
consonant, dhal--two dhals, actually--is pronounced like a double dh, which is similar to
English th, only with the tongue pulled back a bit behind the teeth. Regional
pronunciation differences further complicate matters. Libyans tend to pronounce qaf like a
hard g, which has inspired a whole different set of spellings.

In most cases where there is doubt about how to spell somebody's name, the usual
journalistic practice is to accept the preference of the namee. For many years, however,
the Mummer was too busy promoting global chaos to devote much time to the niceties of
orthography. That changed in May, 1986, when he responded to a letter from some
second-graders at Maxfield Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota. The colonel signed the
letter in Arabic script, beneath which was typed "Moammar El-Gadhafi." This was
the first known indication of his own feelings on the subject...

Meanwhile, 80% of Libyans have grown up knowing only the Mummer's rule. This is, after all, the man who took power during Richard Nixon's first term.